Daniel Sutherland

PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY Dan Sutherland uses a digital Hasselblad camera for his unique landscape photos. Photographer Daniel Sutherland's painterly landscapes of Nantucket are beautiful to the eye. Whether shot in stark black and white or in vivid color, they are rendered in a style of his own that he feels is "like a calling" and, in part, are a personal response to his deep appreciation of the island's conservation efforts.

"The painterly style was an organic outgrowth of how I saw things and approached things," Sutherland said, explaining that about 10 years ago he took some of his striking images to Nantucket Conservation Foundation executive director Jim Lentowski, and offered them at no cost for the NCF to use in brochures, on maps, in annual reports and on its Web site, a relationship that continues to this day.

"It provides me with a way to give back to the community and a way to get exposure. The Conservation Foundation efforts have held these beautiful vistas, and so they are available for my use," Sutherland said, recalling the winter 2007 exhibit of NCF property images he had in the windows of Ralph Lauren on Main Street that was part of Lauren's mission to highlight island nonprofits in the offseason. Those photos are currently displayed at the local Hy-Line office on Straight Wharf.

Shed at Brant Point Sutherland, raised in West Chester County, N.Y., became familiar with Nantucket's visual charms early in his life because his family summered here throughout his youth. His grandparents bought land and built on the island in the 1950s. In 1980 he had a Pentax camera and started shooting slide film of island scenes. He took his natural talent to the Art Institute of Boston where he formally studied photography, then later at the Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport. He attended continuing studies there, learning about digital photography from John Paul Caponigro, considered a leader in the field of digital imaging.

After graduation in 1985, Sutherland worked in fashion and commercial photography in the Boston area where he absorbed the techniques for studio lighting and other nuances of that specialized camera world before moving permanently to Nantucket in 1991, taking employment as a caretaker and beginning to raise his family.

While schooled in film photography, Sutherland made a change to digital, a change he loves.

"I'm getting better results. I consider [digital] superior on several fronts," he said. "There is the ability to shoot faster and get instant feedback. I'm using a high-end digital camera with good optics. There is a lack of grain, and the tonal gradations are incredible with this camera.

"I was schooled in traditional darkroom photography, so I was well aware of the benefits and limitations of film photography. The digital, as far as I'm concerned, is nothing short of Renaissance. Landscape and weather is very ephemeral and fleeting. To shoot quickly and edit is very important to me.

"I think a lot about being a photographer is learning to be a good editor and to be willing to accept feedback. People's response is very important, so I'm constantly learning by the way people respond to my imagery."

Sutherland said his favorite spots to photograph on Nantucket are in its eastern end forests and at the cranberry bogs.

"I love photographing the cranberry bogs," he said, adding that he draws inspiration from early morning light when mist hangs over vegetation. "It is a humanly manipulated landscape, but it expresses itself differently throughout the seasons. I find it really intriguing.

"I am very academic," he continued. "I pursue photography and other photographers. I am constantly exposing myself to what is going on with photography. I like to be informed about what's going on and the history of photography. It's important to have a context."

Now, and for the future, Sutherland is shooting photos out over the water and including the sky.

"That is an emerging theme that is working its way more and more into my portfolio," he said.

Sutherland, whose landscape photos grace the labels at Cisco Brewery, would like to publish a book of his work in the "not too distant future." His photographs are exhibited at the Graficas gallery on upper Broad Street. I